Resolution No. 2/2020
of the Board of the National Association of Judges of Administrative Courts
of 17 July 2020.
We strongly protest against the personal attacks on judges of voivodship administrative courts because of their judgments. In the wPolityce.pl portal (wpolityce.pl) the judgment of the Voivodship Administrative Court in Warsaw issued in the case of the resolution of the Klwów Municipal Council (referred to by journalists as the ‘anti-LGBT resolution’) was commented on by criticizing the judges of the bench and referring to their membership of ‘politicized’ associations. Such criticism is inadmissible. It does not refer to the content and lawfulness of the judgment that was issued (the judgment is not final and is appealable), but to the people who issued the judgment. Its objective is purely to undermine their credibility and intimidate the judges by showing that passing ‘inconvenient’ judgements can involve the public disclosure of information which is unrelated to their working life. The way in which journalists present information about their membership of associations of judges is at least suggestive that the judges are not guided by law, but by politics, and that their actions are in conflict with the interests of the state and citizens.
We would like to point out that the judges are Polish citizens. Therefore, just like every citizen, they have the right to associate (freedom of association) arising from Article 58, para. 1 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland. Associations of judges are legally operating associations, the objective and activities of which are not in conflict with the Constitution. The requirement to disclose membership of associations was only introduced with regard to judges under Article 88a of the Act on the Organization of Ordinary Courts of 27 July 2001 (Journal of Laws of 2020, item 365) and Article 29, para. 1 of the Act on the Organization of Administrative Courts of 25 July 2002 (Journal of Laws of 2019, item 2167), as this does not apply to other citizens. The constitutionality of this regulation is rightly questioned. As shown by the attacks that have been presented, this information is used to undermine trust in the courts and judges.
Link to the original publication in Polish: